Judaism's Strange Gods

Rating:
Summary: Distortions and Misunderstandings
Review: I am a secular Jew who could be regarded as anti-Rabbinic/anti-Talmudic, etc. However, the Talmud is a complex document that takes a lot of training to be able to properly read and understand. I took a year of Talmud in college (at an Ivy League university, not a yeshivah) to fulfill a classical literature requirement for my undergrad major in Comparative Literature. Even after that, I still find it difficult to get a grasp on Talmudic thinking.

One must remember that the Talmud is part of an on-going conversation--between the Rabbis in the Sanhedrin and then later commentators such as Rashi. As such, no isolated comment can be considered definitive. Take for example, the idea that one should kill even the best gentiles. This is based on a Talmudic question about where did the horses for the Egyptian chariots that pursued the escaping Hebrew slaves come from (since all the livestock of the Egyptians had been killed as part of the Ten Plagues); the Rabbis said that the livestock of riteous Egyptians had been spared, but said that the fact that these same livestock were then used against the Hebrews is a demonstration (since everything in the Bible is supposed to have an implicit lesson)that one should not spare enemy soldiers in combat. You can read other refutations of misreadings of the Talmud at http://www.angelfire.com/mt/talmud/.

Also, keep in mind that much of the Talmud is 2000 years old. What were YOUR ancestors doing/thinking/saying 2000 years ago? How did they feel about (often-hostile) foreigners?

Rating:
Summary: Mighty intense.
Review: I started reading this book and at first I thought,
"Ah, I've read all this before." If you've read any books
like "The Temple and the Lodge" and the books written
by authors who suggest that Judeo-Christianity is based
on demon worship, then part of this information won't
be shocking or new to you. The thing that begins to become
clear in this book is that not ALL Christianity is Judaically
based Christianity. This book begins to show the lines where
Judaism begins and where the ancient religion of the Children
of Israel ended. Which is pretty historically mind-bending
because it's so different from what's generally accepted
to be Old Testament history in relation to contemporary Judaism.

One thing that I'm sure is distressing to a lot of people
is some of the racist, supremacist and hateful language
of the Talmud. Which, I dunno, I think people like to think
that only whites have a monopoly on racial hatred or
xenophobia or whatever, but the more I read about the world
around me, the more I see that's simply not true. I guess
if I were Jewish I'd be pretty shocked to see what some
of the rabbis had written, and I'd work to have that stuff
struck from the record and from my way of living. It's
awfully hateful stuff, and a bit hard to read. Kinda makes
the stomach turn and the mouth taste like metal.

So, the book is pretty intense and I don't recommend
reading it right before you go to bed. I'm sure some people
say it's hateful against Jews but I think sometimes the
carpet has to be pulled back on peoples and religions and
some of their beliefs called into question. I don't think
Jews should be exempt from that any more than anyone else
on Earth should be. I just find it kind dangerous and
very perplexing that if one looks into the disturbing tenets
of Buddhism or Islam, one is a scholar of religions, but if
one looks into the tenets of Judaism, one is an anti-Semite.
That part is very disturbing; much more disturbing
than the book itself.

Rating:
Summary: Not scholarship
Review: It seems obvious to me that the author of this book and most of his most favorable reviewers have little or no formal education in Judaism or comparative Western religions. I always find it illuminating, when a book so polarizes its reviewers here on Amazon, to look at the other reviews written by the readers. Here it was particularly illuminating because the readers who laud this book so far beyond its merits have equally championed books that can only be described as out there on the fringe.

Rating:
Summary: Filled with distortions, lies and utter misrepresentations.
Review: Judaism's Strange Gods, is written like Hoffman's other book `The Israeli Holocaust Against the Palestinians' with such lies and distortions, that it is humorous.

I came across a few of his books in a used bookstore. There were about 50 copies of each book for 50 cents each. And they were all overpriced.

The book is filled with distortions, lies and utter misrepresentations.

The book is filled with illogic ideas and a completely unscientific method.

In short, written by liars for a stupid reader.

Rating:
Summary: ahem?
Review: Methinks too many reviewers here are like Jerry Seinfelds uncle Leo, who thinks everyone is an anti-semite. Judaism is a religion, not a race. Chrisitans are bombarded daily with anti-Christian propoganda via television, print and cinema (strange that those industries are mostly controlled by followers of Zionism/Judaism).

Now for the really controversial: The Holocaust Was The Best Thing That Ever Happened to organized Judaism. Why? One cannot look cross-eyed at anything to do with Judaism/Zionism without being smeared and labeled as an "anti-semite". What better way to mask any bad that you do, by being the perpetual victim? Let's see, the Talmud calls Jesus a magician and calls his mother a whore..."Anti-semite!" the Zionist apologizer screams! Someone in Germany investigates and finds that the number of people that died at Auschwitz was revised from 4 million to possibly 1 million in 1990..."Anti-semite!", author gets put in jail for "questioning" the holocaust. Attack on the USS Liberty, whitewashed and covered up by Washington and Israel, any question of this war crime by Israel (They were attempting to sink and kill everyone abord because the ship had intercepted transmissions from the Israeli army that described the slaughter of unarmed Egyptian POW's), "anti-semite!" It must be nice to have the crutch of the "holocaust" to lean on, forever cloaking any wrongdoing or racism on the part of the Zionists. If it were up to the rabbi's, there would be laws forcing people to like jews. Fortunately, no such law YET exists. I am free to like or dislike whatever philosophy or religion I so desire, and no amount of labeling or smears by those trying to hide something will change my mind. (Oh, BTW, like another reviewer here, I went to the library to verify what Mr Hoffman had described in the Soncino Talmud. Everything he said was right there for the world to see. Verify it for yourself, don't take Hoffman's word for it)

Rating:
Summary: haha
Review: o god. what has teh world come to. This is a piece ofr hate literature. quotes are out of context. If anyone knows the 'Protocols of the elders of Zion'...this is a modern version of it. Yes, jews nowadays are not "biblical jews" they are
"talmudic jews" but the talmud is an interpretation of the old testament.

Rating:
Summary: excellent study..why I am not a jew anymore.
Review: Thank you Mr. Hoffman for writing this book. Since I left Judaism everyone thought I was crazy, But deep in my heart I know how ungodly it is. Even before reading your book, i embarked on a soul search and i found out by reading the talmud that Judaism can not be a Godly religion. How can I hate my neighbors who are so dear to me and still call myself a person of God (yes God and not G-d). The talmud tells me that non jews are cattle and swine and that they need to be cheated and they are not worthy of my love and mercy. How can I live with myself and believe that. I love my neighbors and my friends. I refuse to spit on churchs as the Talmud tells me. I refuse to call christian women Shikzahs (abomination), and above all I want to join the families of man and not segregate myself from this world and live in peace and not hate. I renouce my judaism.
Thank you mr. Hoffman


Rating:
Summary: A primitive anti-Semitic pamphlet
Review: This book has nothing to do with discussion of the "strange gods," a term describing the deities of other religions mentioned in the Bible.
Hoffman's major argument, instead, is that the religion laid down in Talmud is unrelated to the Bible, which is absurd, since Talmud represents painstakingly careful elaboration of the Bible. Certainly, many times the Talmudic interpretation is far-fetched and is open to argument, but this does not make Talmud a different religion. In fact, every major religion has a large body of literature interpreting its scriptures, so the Talmudic method of elaboration is not unique. Since Hoffman poses as Christian, he should consider the prominent place the New Testament interpretation occupies in the Christian thought. Every branch of Christianity derived very different rules from the NT in the process clearly reminiscent of the Talmudic expansion of Hebrew Bible.
Echoing scores of anti-Semites since Apion, Hoffman explicitly calls Jews the racists hating everyone from Blacks to Christians to Virgin Mary. He supports his thesis with few contemptuous references from Talmud. Well, these are only few opinions by ancient scholars. Their inflamed style, moreover, was standard rhetoric device until very recently. Hoffman should have better read anti-Judaic polemic of, say, John Chrysostom and Augustine, not to speak of the myriad of other Christian scholars. Their attitude does not prove that all or even most Christians are anti-Semites, or that anti-Semitism is endemic to Christianity. Few Talmudic citations Hoffman presents also look pale compared to volumes of secular racist literature developed by non-Jews.
Overall, Hoffman's position is well clarified by his casual remark, calling Spielberg's The Schindler List movie the attempt of indoctrination.
This pamphlet has nothing to do with scholarship, and is not worth reading. My copy ended in trash bin.


Rating:
Summary: Mighty intense.
Review: This outstanding book is a must read for any who seek to understand the situation in the Middle East today. It is scholarly, well documented, and extraordinarily well written. That some folks want to discourage the reading of this important book by calling it anti-Semitic is ample proof that it strikes close to home with respect to revealing the basis of the insanity of the zionist movement. The reality is that the author presents the truth of the matter. And as he so insightfully observes, the truth can not be "anti-anything". It is the truth that will set us free. I strongly recommend the purchase, reading, and serious study of this exceptional and important book.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful, Insightful, Riveting
Review: This outstanding book is a must read for any who seek to understand the situation in the Middle East today. It is scholarly, well documented, and extraordinarily well written. That some folks want to discourage the reading of this important book by calling it anti-Semitic is ample proof that it strikes close to home with respect to revealing the basis of the insanity of the zionist movement. The reality is that the author presents the truth of the matter. And as he so insightfully observes, the truth can not be "anti-anything". It is the truth that will set us free. I strongly recommend the purchase, reading, and serious study of this exceptional and important book.